How Apple and NFC Just Made Flying and Paying at Airports Easier and Faster

Apple just made tap-and-go near field communication (NFC) as sexy and cool as its devices, and saved the technology from disappearing into a technical abyss by making it a key feature of its new phone and watch products. Until Apple's announcement of its new NFC-based Apple Pay feature, NFC technology was on the fence in airports and on airplanes. As Ilia Kostov, EVP Global Sales and Product Strategy for GuestLogix explains: "NFC was not widely supported because a major smartphone player hadn't supported it. Now, with both Apple and Samsung using NFC technology it has become relevant and important, as much for travel companies as for retailers. The promise of NFC is really big, smart cards [credit cards embedded with NFC] are popular and convenient. Similarly, we expect NFC payment by smartphone to become more widely used, because it is a more secure and convenient method of